Iniquity

Reflection for the First Sunday in Advent, the 3rd of December 2023.  Written by Philip Harvey for the pew notes of St Peter’s Eastern Hill, Melbourne.

 

Iniquity is not a word we hear every day. It is not the first word we use when complaining about something or someone iniquitous. It would be unusual for someone to say of another, that their problem is their persistent iniquity. Yet, when we read the paper, browse the browser, glance at news screens, a main theme is a world of iniquity. 

Wickedness, sin, vice, lawlessness, the synonyms are familiar to all of us. Though when Isaiah uses the word he seems not simply to be talking in such specific terms. Iniquity is a state that we fall into, easy to do and much harder to extract ourselves from. Our hearts are drawn into this state, such that we find excuses to prolong the condition. At its worst, “we all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.” We live with our wrongdoing, persist quite willingly, while longing to be free of it. Isaiah discerns this as separation from God: “there is no one who calls on your name, or attempts to take hold of you.” 

Far from treating this as a simplistic equation of righteousness versus unrighteousness, Scripture takes time to describe the intrinsic relationship between ourselves and our Maker. It’s not just others’ problem, it’s our problem. Those who “remember you in your ways” will be aware that “we are all your people”, we may be forgiven and known, where our iniquity will not be remembered forever. 

This God, “who works for those who wait for him”, remains present. In this, the words of the Gospel are insistent as those of the Prophet. To know neither the day nor the hour of his arrival is to be on constant alert for that moment. Distractions and diversions, excuses and tiny litanies of iniquities, are not going to cut it. Overcoming separation, keeping watch, staying awake are imperatives. It is a message repeated often enough for anyone to hear. 

Given the choice, this makes sense of the ecstatic opening to the letter to the Corinthians, residents of a city not unfamiliar with iniquity. Thanks are given to God for the grace given in Christ Jesus, “for in every way you have been enriched in him, in speech and knowledge of every kind.” They are told that “he will strengthen you to the end, so that you may be blameless on the day of our Lord.” 

Isaiah 64: 1-9, 1 Corinthians 1: 3-9, Mark 13: 24-end.